Relations between three-point configuration space shear and convergence statistics

¹ Argelander-Institut für Astronomie (AIfA), Universität Bonn, Auf dem Hügel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany
e-mail: xun@astro.uni-bonn.de
² International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Universities of Bonn and Cologne, Germany
³ Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK

Received: 11 May 2011
Accepted: 20 July 2011

Abstract

With the growing interest in and ability of using weak lensing studies to probe the non-Gaussian properties of the matter density field, there is an increasing need for the study of suitable statistical measures, e.g. shear three-point statistics. In this paper we establish the relations between the three-point configuration space shear and convergence statistics, which are an important missing link between different weak lensing three-point statistics and provide an alternative way of relating observation and theory. The method we use also allows us to derive the relations between other two- and three-point correlation functions. We show the consistency of the relations obtained with already established results and demonstrate how they can be evaluated numerically. As a direct application, we use these relations to formulate the condition for E/B-mode decomposition of lensing three-point statistics, which is the basis for constructing new three-point statistics which allow for exact E/B-mode separation. Our work applies also to other two-dimensional polarization fields such as that of the cosmic microwave background.